Neil McAllister's Homepage


Reading List

“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.”

Stephen King may not be the world’s greatest literary genius, but he got it right with this comment. More than this, though, reading regularly is one of the best ways to improve your own vocabulary, knowledge, and understanding of the world you live in. For all the opinions that I hear voiced every day, it pains me that more of my conversations aren’t about books.

In that light, on this page I’ll maintain a list of books that I’m reading or have recently read. I welcome any and all comments on the books listed here, as well as suggestions of any other books or writers that you think I might enjoy.

Currently:

  • Microbe, Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D., and Michael Bellomo
  • Moby-Dick, Herman Melville

In 2008:

  1. The Zero, Jess Walter
  2. Omnivore, Piers Anthony
  3. The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells
  4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
  5. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
  6. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006, Brian Green, ed.
  7. The Coming Plague, Laurie Garrett

In 2007:

  1. World War Z, Max Brooks
  2. Next, Michael Crichton
  3. The Ruins, Scott Smith
  4. DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics, Klaus Janson
  5. Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson (SUCKED)
  6. Purity of Blood, Arturo Perez-Reverte
  7. Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, Gary Owen
  8. Waiting for Snow in Havana, Carlos Eire
  9. A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah (GREAT)
  10. On Writing Well, William Zinsser
  11. What Is the What, Dave Eggers
  12. The Abortionist’s Daughter, Elisabeth Hyde
  13. Carry Me Down, M.J. Hyland
  14. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
  15. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Richard P. Feynman
  16. A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon
  17. Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer
  18. Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, Chuck Palahniuk
  19. Dune, Frank Herbert
  20. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
  21. If You Liked School, You’ll Love Work, Irvine Welsh
  22. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
  23. Spook Country, William Gibson
  24. House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III
  25. Ideas into Words, Elise Hancock

In 2006:

  1. Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis
  2. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
  3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
  4. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
  5. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Umberto Eco
  6. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (AWESOME)
  7. Thank You For Smoking, Christopher Buckley
  8. All Tomorrow’s Parties, William Gibson
  9. Cell, Stephen King
  10. Company, Max Barry
  11. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (STRONG)
  12. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Ann Rice (SO DULL)
  13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke (FUN)
  14. The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem (PRETENTIOUS)
  15. The Harmony Silk Factory, Tash Aw
  16. We the Media, Dan Gillmor
  17. The Alienist, Caleb Carr
  18. JPod, Douglas Coupland (PRETTY OK!)
  19. Londonstani, Gautam Malkani
  20. Terrorist, John Updike
  21. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (POWERFUL)
  22. The World is Flat (2e), Thomas L. Friedman (OVERRATED)
  23. Nation of Rebels, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter
  24. The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, Irvine Welsh
  25. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (REALLY GOOD)
  26. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, Faïza Guèna
  27. Adverbs, Daniel Handler
  28. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
  29. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (AMAZING)
  30. The Futurist, James P. Othmer
  31. Making Comics, Scott McCloud
  32. The Keep, Jennifer Egan
  33. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
  34. Captain Alatriste, Arturo Perez-Reverte
  35. The Town That Forgot How to Breathe, Kenneth J. Harvey
  36. Nick Adams Stories, Ernest Hemmingway